Mylee Francisco has been dancing for 17 of her 23 years, but didn’t start belly dancing until she was 13 years old. “My mom was in a [belly dance] class before my hip hop class, so I had to wait and watch,” Francisco said. “I started to like it; I thought it was really cool.” Her mom told her she could do it, and she has been ever since.
Francisco said she had a lot of confidence from young age, belly dancing at her middle school and high school assemblies. “I had balls of steel,” she said. “I look back now and am like – whew – where’d that come from?"
Not only does Francisco dance, but she also makes her own costumes to perform in. She doesn’t like the current fashion of belly dancer costumes, which she said are incredibly tight-fitting and gaudy. “It’s like dancing in a platinum tube sock,” she said. Francisco said her own style is more subtle and classic, a 1960s, belly dancer meets James Bond look. The resources to create homemade costumes are vaster that they once were, she said. “Ten years ago [the costume] was like a bra with some ridiculous, gnarly-ass sequin from Jo-Anne’s.”
Francisco teaches classes at the Blue Moon Ballroom, located on Cornwall Avenue in downtown Bellingham. Her next class session begins May 10.
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